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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  July 10, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm PDT

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battleground. a summer blockbuster from the mountains to the prairies. >> this old style liberalism of bigger government and bigger taxes has got to end and we will end it in november. >> while in washington, another vote designed to go nowhere. >> why, why, why? you know. why? why? >> please, mr. speaker, just tell us why. >> it really boils down to one simple word. resolve. >> resolve? try insanity. doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. and we begin with what is shaping up to be a blockbuster summer on the presidential campaign trail. the president and his challenger both fired up this afternoon in a pair of battleground states. and a brand new national poll
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showing the two men lockeded in a dead heat. the president carried his message of middle class tax cuts for 98% of the population to cedar rapids, iowa, just moments ago where he sounded a bull horn in the name of equality. >> our goal is to put people back to work, but it's also to build an economy where that work pays off. an economy in which everybody, whether they start a business or they're punching a clock, can have confidence that if you work hard, you can get ahead. that's what this campaign is about cht. >> meantime, mitt romney with a sunny disposition after his week long holiday on the lake and weekend at the hamptons was in the swing state of colorado and swinging as far right as we've heard him. mr. romney railed against that old enemy of the state.
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liberalism. >> this old style liberalism has got to end and we will end it in november. >> yes, even the presumptive nominee seems to know he's not running as mr. romney. whoever that is. he's running as mr. i'm not the president and in that sense, his attack on the president, well, it felt rather wooden. >> by putting money into energy company, solar and energy companies that make their products outside the united states, if there's an out sourcer in chief, t the president of the united states, not the guy running to replace him. >> one suspects that even he knows that better than to play the outsourcing card or maybe he'll continue with his tour of falsehoods like saying obamacare is bad for jobs or that the president wants to raise taxes on the middle class or that the president goes around the r world apologizing for america. of course, saying it doesn't
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make it true, but that doesn't stop mr. romney. let's get to our panel. david corn, msnbc political analyst and washington editor and bureau chief for mother jones magazine. eugene robinson and julian epste epstein. eugene, you have to give credit to mr. romney for delivering a performance of row pa dope. he's taken an issue of hiding his offshore investment, but instead of addressing those questions. he speaks contemptuously of liberals. >> the romney folks figure that's the best card they have to play. that he's not, his name is not barack obama and he hasn't been president for the last several years and he's a business guy.
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but he doesn't want to talk too much about what he did as a business guy because that won't be terribly popular. he certainly doesn't want to talk about his personal finances, so point the finger at the liberals and try to turn this outsourcing thing back on president obama, which is really bizarre even for the romney campaign. >> it is bizarre. david, i want if i may, to play you a rare moment of honesty from mitt romney during a cnn debate in january. take a listen to this, david. >> why not should the people of south carolina before this election see last year's return? >> because i want to make sure that i beat president obama and every time we release things drip by drip, the the democrats go out with another array of attacks. >> there you have it. that's the truth. he can't say anything about his personal finances. he won't reveal his tax returns because voters are likely to
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turn against him and he won't win the election. >> i'm surprised martin, that i have to tell you one of the basic fact of life. if you have a swiss bank account, you don't talk about it. i mean, come on, everybody. let's get real here. this is mitt romney at his core. he knew for years he was running for president, he knew in '07. he knew he'd be doing it again and he is just decided that damn it all, i'm not going to make this stuff public. you know, there's this company stangty that "vanity fair" wrote about. we don't know what happens there. there are questions about his ira. so many questions, whether he voided taxes or did something illegal and he has just decided he is not going to drip, drip, drip. give us answers to those
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questions. that's because he's mitt romney and he believes he doesn't have to. >> indeed. julian, mitt romney did address his offshore accounts and taxes again last night, speaking in that voice he learned at harvard law school. >> with regards to any foreign investments, i understand and you understand of course that m investments have been meld hello by a blind trust, have been managed by a trustee. i don't manage them, don't even know where they are. >> julian, you are an attorney at law. this is a man who called ted kennedy's blind trust the age old roos in 1994. have the laws about blind trust changed? >> no. it hasn't and his knowledge of not just his blind trust, but all of his other financial activities, david had a tremendous story last week about a waste disposal company that he was involved in that dealt with aborted fetuses. the list of his personal
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finances and the stories about it just goes on and on an on. i think david is is right. this is the last thing he wants to talk about, but the story keeps come back and as far as this point about social liberalism, he had a terrible, he thought he could win the debate on immigration. he lost that debate. he thought he could win the debate on health care and that didn't turn out so well. he is running away from this debate on taxes not just because of his personal financial situation, not just because the tax proposal that obama made would affect less than 3% of businesses, but because taxes in this country are at 15% of the economy. it's the lowest in 50 years, so he really has no place to go. we've had the manchurian candidate. this is the mannequin candidate that has no proposals of his own. taxes are at the lowest we've had in 50 years. so this is nothing other than i'm not the other guy. >> and he now castigates
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liberalism. eugene, when you look at the polling, the president and romney are neck and neck at 47%. when you focus on republican efforts to suppress the vote in pennsylvania where you say almost 10% of the electorate could be affected, is this how romney potentially wins the presidency? doesn't talk about his personal finances and relies on states suppressing the vote? >> i think i would worry about this, martin, at least as much i'd worry about mitt romney. mitt romney is not a perfect vessel for republican ideas cht he's not a perfect candidate, he has vulnerabilities and barack obama's a very good politician. this campaign nationwide is more than worrisome. it's really an abomination. i wrote about pennsylvania where the house majority leader sort
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of let slip that now we have voter i.d. and that will allow mitt romney to win pennsylvania. the way they'll do it is is by kicking a bunch of potential democratic voters off the voting rolls by requiring to have photo i.d. this is happening in state after state. and it is very serious. i do hope that the courts eventually intervene and stop what i think is just an assault of democracy. >> david, yeah, go ahead. >> gene had a tremendous comment on "washington post" today, but someone between 10 and 20% of all registered voters don't have photo identifications and in many places like in texas, you have these offices that issue these i.d.s that are located hundreds of miles away from the particular community an the data is overwhelming trk data on hispanics and african-americans and this is supposeded to fix a
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problem ft it's been studied in kansas, ohio, it doesn't exist. even under the bush justice department, there were only a handful of cases prosecuted in the entire eight years. this is aimed to disenfranchise somewhere between 10 to 20% of registered voters. >> there were no cases prosecuted by that bush effort that would be fixeded by voter i.d. cases of impersonation, which is the only form of fraud you fix by voter i.d. this is a solution in search of a problem. >> and david, it is about disenfranchising democratic voters, isn't it? >> well, of course. there's a long tradition in american politics of trying to rig the roles in your favor. that way, you have an edge. this is going to be a tremendously chose election. i hope it's not a repeat of 2000, but we could get to that. i mean, it's 47-47 in parts of the country.
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you have all these different polls in different swing states. it seems either candidate so far has the potential to pull away from the other candidate. you know, if you can aim at 10 to 20% of the population, but really, if you just dissuade 1%, half a percent, maybe a quarter percent from voting, that could do the trick in this case and i would commend the people, not just gene's column, but kevin drum did an excellent piece on this photo i.d. stuff. >> david corn, eugene robinson and julian epstein, stay with us. you're too smart to let go. next, karl rove and his social welfare organization targeting a takeover at the senate. no wonder this man is smiling. >> do you believe you will be the majority leader next year? >> 50-50. i think it's going to be a very close, competitive election. there are a number of places where we have opportunities for pick-ups.
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social welfare is not a phrase one would normally associate with the republican party. after all, republicans have been railing against the concept ever since reagan raised the specter of free loading welfare queens during his campaign for the white house, but oh, how times have changed and instead of attacking welfare, today's republicans are taking it up as shield to protect some of their most secretive operations. >> it's time to play who's the biggest supporter of the obama agenda in ohio. it's sherrod brown. brown backed obama's agenda a whopping 95% of the time. >> that is an attack ad against senator sherrod brown, democratic, that came out today from karl rove's quote social
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welfare group. it's part of a multi-million dollar ad buy in other swing states arndt the country, but mr. rove can pass it off quote as issue advocacy and raise untold amount of money from donors he'll never have to reveal. mr. rove in one of the great ironnys continues his plan to purchase american democracy, but always in lieu of social welfare. let's bring back our panel now. david, here we have what amounts to a vast right wing conspiracy led by mr. rove and the koch brothers to buy the election and they're doing it all under the e gis of social welfare. should i be laughing or crying? >> it's a new type of socialism. this is a dodge that's been on the books for a long time. and to be honest, groups on the
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left, environmental groups an others do this same thing. but the law says if you are a social welfare organization, politics can be sort of a percentage of your operation, you have to exist to social welfare. having the debate over immigration, energy policy, would advance the social welfare no matter what side of the debate you're on. what karl rove and others have done is take this idea of non-profits and make them just political, just oriented to campaigns. they can't tell you to vote for or against a particular candidate, but they can say send a load to barack obama and tell him to get lost for whatever reason. the key thing is you know, that because of this, they're not like a pac. they don't have to disclose the billionaires and millionaires who are venting by giving them millions of dollars, so you never know who's behind these
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attack ads. we have the money that's trying to sort of swipe them out of the markets. >> no, i was just going to say what david said. the whole purpose of this is to avoid disclosure. david axelrod said this is the most secretive candidate since nixon. when it's run by special interests and you never have any idea of who the republican party owes big fat i.o.u. to. it took john roberts to explain the difference between a direct tax and direct tax penalty, now, voters don't seem to understand the difference between an issue oriented pac and social welfare fill an tlopic organization. which could be geared toward advocacy. this is all about republicans
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thinking that the public does not have a right to know to know who the republican party owes a big fat i.o.u. to. >> we just saw a commercial with sherrod brown, part of the ad bits in that state. liberal groups have spent around $2 million. how on earth is mr. brown supposed to complete when he's been outspent 2-1 by people he knows nothing about? >> well, martin, don't you realize that anonymous right wing billionaires are people, too. >> sorry. of course. thank you. >> seriously, on the presidential level, the obama campaign's going to have a lot of money. might not have as much, but obama and his allies will have tons of money and frankly, i think you can reach a saturation point in the campaign where
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there's just no more air time. both sides will get their message out. but down ticket, for someone like sherrod brown, for house races around the country, this sort of huge money piling in can make all the difference and that's where i think there could really be a substantial impact. >> particularly towards the end of the campaign, martin, because you can have these groups come in in the last week or two of the campaign and go up against the house or senate candidate with a million or two million dollars. that's real money for those sort of races. that's going to happen? maybe there will be an angry letter to the times about this, but karl rove will be laughing all the way to the majority of the is that the and preserving the majority in the house of republicans. >> i think obama's going to be fine on the money at the end of the game and i think he's got a better game on the ground right now. but you picture a situation where a major vote is coming up
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on say regulation of the oil industry and have the oil industry that can come into any number of district and say if you vote against me, i'll run $2 million of negative ads against you, because of this lack of accountability in this citizens united era is just astounding. >> it's not just about getting people to vote your way in return for a campaign donation. lot of times, it's scaring the hell out of people so you don't become a target of this money. a lot of people in swing states and tough districts don't want to become targets and they know what will make them a target. >> saying it like it is. thank you, gentlemen. next, speaker boehner. man of action. >> why, why, why? you know, why? [ male announcer ] this is rudy.
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house republicans tomorrow will vote for the 30th time to repeal the president's health care act despite the fact they know it has no chance of passing the senate. luke, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again an hoping for a different rul. does that mean speaker boehner may be in need of psychiatric help? >> republicans would tell them this is a winning issue for them. 30 times, right, they like it. they look at internal polling, which they feel the health care law being repealed eed is favor to them. this is probably the last substantial one you'll see. speaker boehner is going to have the whole gop leadership's going to go to the floor and talk loudly about it for quite some time. it will be interesting to see how it resognates in november.
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>> i understand you asked the speaker about his remarks when he said the country will not fall in love with mitt romney. let's take a look at his answer cht. >> the point i was trying to make is simply this. the election this november is going to be a referendum on the president's failed economic policies. i'm going to be enthusiastic about voting for governor romney in november. >> luke, can you recall a speaker of the house ever offering a weaker endorsement? >> well, look at it, john boehner has pretty much kept his mouth shut the entire time, but if you talk to aides behind the scenes from all sorts of republicans here, is there a lot of rank and file you know, shout at the top of the mountain support for mitt romney on capitol hill? no. but will they come and put their resources toward mitt romney?
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probably. a gop aide said you've got to go to the dance with the one that brought you and they're going to dance all the way with mitt romney and we'll see how far that goes cht it. it's not like the enthusiasm for george w. bush. stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up.
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chances are, you're not me of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. here are today's top lines. >> if i were to loan you this to display here at the white house -- >> this will never go up in the white house. >> oh, it looks good on you though. >> my speculation about who mitt romney will choose as running
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mate, so it's fair to ask. >> that's a clown question, bro. >> a guy named joe biden. >> america runs on dunkin'. >> about dogs on top of cars, bain capital, bank account in the caymans. >> is it your belief that it's unpatriotic for someone to have a swiss bank account? >> if you are running for president is that the american people know and that you're an open book. >> should he release the tax returns? >> i would. >> that's been true of every presidential candidating back to mr. romney's father. >> i've had to face some hard truths tonight, billy. >> i am your father. >> you were brought up with every advantage. i bought you everything. >> you understand of course my investments have been held by a blind trust. >> the blind trust is an age old ruse, if you will. you can always tell the blind trust what it can and cannot do. >> he's going to try and attack
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me on every personal basis. all the taxes are paid. >> john boehner, so the americans won't fall in love with mitt romney before the election. >> why, why. >> got even weirder when boehner was like at least not like i have. >> let's get right to our panel know. and mr. wolfe, thank you both for joining us. rick perry is at least the seventh governor i believe to indicate his state will say no to the new medicaid funding under the president's health care reform. none of these governors are up for re-election this year. do you think that when it comes to 2014 and the health care reforms are implemented, we might start changing our minds a
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bit? >> i think so, but i'm not particularly hopeful because i think the republicans are going to make this a litmus issue. they spent so much time demagoguing quote unquote that i think this will become a new issue and anyone who wants to survive a republican primary is in a position to -- and to be able to do it, is going to pay the price in a republican primary. >> on the basis he doesn't want to support planned parenthood. the predicament of women in need of basic health care is going to worsen and worsen in that state. >> that's about right because women rely disportion atly on medicaid. we're talking about 2 million texans --
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>> 25% of adults in texas. >> right, ununshiured, but we shouldn't be surprised because rick perry had turned down medicaid fundi inin ining and h just so he could sort of spike planned parenthood, so this should not be surprising. he also said back in november of 2011 that they were sort of the toying with the idea of not doing medicaid at all. >> we're bring richard wolffe in. fair enough. look, these governors, richard, they tell us they're going to reject this money. in the form of rick perry and this gentleman, mr. romney says that he'll repeal and replace obama care. i haven't heard one person tell me what they're going to replace this with. explain. >> to be fair, they have come up with ideas. just ideas that won't work.
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things like selling insurance across state lines. >> we know that works well. >> torte reform. >> none of those are addressing the core issues, which is cost of health care or the uninsured. >> first million people. >> right, so they have talking points, but they don't try to address those problems. i just want to come back to how the health care law is changing politics now. have we've seen the polls move, how we'll move after implementation. we haven't seen a lot implemented already. now, the debate is do you want stuff taken away from you. many don't understand what's in this law, but they certainly don't want things taken away from them. this whole debate will get framed up for these governors along with states that do take this funding, where this law is being implemented and they are going to look bad by comparison. by the way, these are also a bunch of governors who have said
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in the past, very bad things about the recovery act, about stimulus spending. saying give me the money. by the way, i built this road and this and that. so, i think a lot of the positioning now is going to look even more shallow than a couple of years than it does right now and these are people very comfortable campaigning against something, but secretly taking the the money and trying the take credit for it. >> the problem with this is unlike the stimulus where you could sort of publicly say no, i don't want this one particular part of it, but i'll take all that other stuff. this is very cut and dry. do you do it or not? there's a difference between i agree with you in a general election, i think it will be very damaging to republican politicians who say no to the money. in a republican primary, i think it's a very different story and in a way, a broader narrative about how far and how far republicans have been pulled by their own party that makes it harder for them to win in
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general elections down the road. >> indeed. i wanted to mention the kaiser family plan looked into the states in 2010 and found that under a high participation rate, the plan would require little extra spending from states on average. so what do you have? do you have no tax cuts and health care or do you have no tax cuts and health care? is that how the shift works as far as romney's concerned? zwl i think that's how it's lined up. in the early years, the federal government is footing the entire bill. it's unconscionable you would say no to these people. if you look at the map, it just so happens that states turning down the funding are ones that have the highest rates of insurance and worst health care in the country, so the very people who need this the most
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are the ones likely to be left out in the cold. >> it's not free for everyone. it may be free at the point of service for uninsured people, but the states themselves, it's costing them money. if you think your plat norm is fial responsibility, this is a much better way to do it. >> and what about the fact that many of these hospitals are a going to turn around and start complaining? what happens then when big teaching hospitals go to their governors, that's going on here? >> but insurers, too. the insurers wanted the health care reform act to go through. they were into this because they get all of these extra customers in an don't have to chase people that don't have insurance as well. the idea of the industry leading the party, at some point, that's got to fracture. these lobbyists are going to say
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this really isn't in our interest and for the health care industry, much to the pain and dismay of many progressives, the white house we want out of its way to get as many people in the industry on board here because they were getting a good deal out of expanding hemt care for all americans. that's are where these governors are playing a short-term game for a very long-term problem. >> and perhaps if the governors are unwilling to listen to their own people, listen to the people funding their own campaigns. >> thank you so much. and remember, you can catch krystal and her co-hosts every day. stay with us. much more ahead. one year could be a fluke. perhaps done for show, end of quote. that was his father. his son has released only one year of his tax returns. making alive the old adage, like father, like son.
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his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve.
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and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. spent a little time around ohio last week and people kept asking the same question. where are the jobs? >> funny you should ask that, mr. boehner. the entire country is wondering the same thing, but they're also wondering why you and your colleagues are scheduling yet another toothless vote rather than tackling tax cut extensions. speaker boehner today described himself a glass half full guy, but i'd like to ask you what his glass is half full of because he thinks he can overturn the president's health care plan. he's scheduling a 30th vote
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against it. what's the man talking about? >> a glass that is full of political rhetoric. this is the 32nd time they've gotten on the floor to drive a stake in the heart of the health care bill. it makes no sense. the other question is, at a certain point, we start to earn this 10% approval rating that we have and when we do things repeatedly that have no prospect of making a difference, it's time to get on with it with health care. the other question is mr. boehner, where's your plan a. what's your plan to replace letting our kids stay on health care until age 26? free preventive care for seniors. access to health insurance even if you have a preexisting condition. >> this is one of your republican colleagues, cathy mor ris rogers, take a listen. >> and even yesterday, there was
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a report by the doctor patient medical association that showed that 83% of doctors in this country have considered quitting because of obamacare. >> now, sir, that is a totally untrue statement. peddled by conservatives who are using typical square hole logic to make their politics. why do they insist on arguing from the basis of falsehood? >> it's embarrassing if they had to acknowledge that the american medical soes the obama health care plan. so this is a bogus, trumped up deal that is not talking at all about facts. bottom line, our health care system needs repair. our employers are laboring under high health care costs. there's a lot to discuss, but to be in this rhetorical back and forth where essentially it's gridlock and we're not moving to make the changes we need and
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improvements that the country needs is just, it's really kind of a disgraceful way to do your job. >> the vote won't work when a reporter asked what the chances were, his response was quote hope springs eternal. he's basically admitting this won't work. so, why aren't we moving on to taxes or dare i say it, jobs, because he's the one who keeps talking about jobs. he's the one who says constituents are asking where are the jobs. we're asking speaker boehner where are the jobs. >> politics is a prgmatagmatic pursuit and you have to come up with solutions to problems and if you don't engage and put out something that has a prospect of succeeding, then you're in it about winning the next election even at the expense of the american economy and health care
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system. >> i think some people are wondering whether it's time to bring back newt gingrich. there you go. thank you so much for joining us. next, america abroad and what could be the beginning of a foreign success story. stay with us. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese without freshly-made pasta. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's.
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in a development few of us expected to see, libya sight of a violent up ayesing held a peaceful election. let by a political scientist who was actually educated in the west. mark ginsburg also served as middle east ambassador to carter. what can you tell us about jabril and the nature of the government that's been elected
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by the libyan people? zwl he's the type of leader we wish was in charge of every arab country. educated at the university of pittsburgh, a political scientist, a secularist, devout muslim in terms of his own religious practice. a leader that earns the respect of a lot of libyans because he hails from their largest tribe and he's served as the interim prime minister and led successfully this new coalition of secular parties known as the national forces alliance. >> so, an encouraging step. last summer at the height of the revolution in libya, mitt romney was very critical of the president. suggested if he were president, he'd write a letter to gadhafi with a stern warning. >> before we carried out any military activity, i hope we acted mr. gadhafi and said if you attack your own people,
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we'll come shoot him down. >> clearly, mr. romney's business experience means he knows how to throw out a cease about desist letter. what's the man talking about? >> of course not. the fact of the matter is that you do want to serve warning, but at the same time, you want to speak softly and carry a big stick. the fact is that the obama approach in libya has yielded results that could stop the northern brotherhood in africa and the middle east. if you have a leader like jabril is able to eliminate some of the fighting that goes on still around the country, this is the kind of foreign policy success all should be proud of. >> well, we're looking live now at pictures of tahrir square in
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cairo. egypt's court has declared president morsi's executive order to reinstate parliament has unconstitutional. what does that mean for the nations? >> it is really a test of wills between military and muslim brotherhood and eventually, both sides are going to wind up walking away with some sort of an agreement because there's no way the military can stop the muslim brotherhood and the military wants to protect its assets and position as well as the right to declare war. remember, mr. morsi is just a figure head. he was never supposed to win this election and the real leadership of this muslim brotherhood are athese elders. >> thank you so much for addressing both topics today. >> sure. >> we'll be right back. the medicare debate continues in washington...
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...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org.
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on medicare and social security ♪ [ acou[ barks ]ar: slow ] ♪ [ upbeat ] [ barks ]
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beneful playful life is made with energy-packed wholesome grains... and real beef and egg. to help you put more play in your day. it's time now to clear the air. and today, we wanted to offer a public service warning about one of the polls that continues to be used by mitt romney as evidence against the white house. mr. romney keeps saying this about the president's health care reform. >> three quarters of those surveyed by the chamber of commerce said obamacare makes it less likely for them to hire people. >> three quarters.
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according to the chamber of commerce. now, the u.s. chamber of commerce may sound like an independent, non political body that exists to support businesses, but it's an organization that entirely opposes the president's health care act and has run ads like this one. >> obamacare would be a nightmare for florida seniors. did bill nelson consider the consequences when he cast the deciding vote? >> but worse is the survey mitt romney keeps quoting is about as scientific -- his dog loved being strapped to the roof of his car. the statistic that romney keeps quoting was based on an online opt in survey of small business executives. it was so lacking in the standard methodology for a
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properly executed poll that the u.s. chamber of commerce themselves actually issued a press release as a kind of health warning against their own survey. this online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. in other words, this is not a credible survey and should not be deployed as such. but that hasn't stopped mitt romney or speaker boehner, who said this just a few hours ago. >> it's why this week the house will vote to repeal obamacare, which is driving up the cost of health care and making it harder for small businesses to create jobs. >> making it harder for small businesses to create jobs. remember what mitt romney said as well about three quarters of small businesses according to the u.s. chambers of commerce. there you have it. bogus claims based upon bogus evidence about a